Passing or Failing grades...

dundasgirl

Does your school system believe that "every child must succeed"?

There is rarely if ever a child held back around here (what we used to call "failing a grade"). 

I have mixed feelings about this.  With all of the cutbacks in education...some kids are making it all the way to high school barely able to read...and not getting the extra help they need along the way.  They are just getting pushed through the system. 

I know it sucks to "fail" or not go to the next grade with your friends...but if you aren't there academically, why should you go to the next, even more difficult level?

Are the social ramifications that severe? 

I lived in a small town and there were kids who didn't pass (especially in grade 7) and we were all still friends.  Mind you, we were friends with kids in other grades anyway.

Thoughts?

 

CMM05

For clarification: are you asking if schools actually use a "pass or fail" system or if they will hold kids back?

We do NOT use pass/fail grades in our elementary/middle schools (can't remember what the high schools do....). All students receive a letter grade.

HOWEVER......it is basically impossible for a school to hold back a student due to failing grades and it makes me angry at times, as a teacher.

I have had students who have received all "F's" in all core classes (math, sci, soc st, english) almost the whole year only to be pushed ahead. The reasoning????? The parents fight it (no joke). Ask any administrator and they will tell you that is the reason they don't fight the battle. The parents are not supportive of making children repeat grades even if their child has failed. Most of these parents make excuses for their kid and blame it on the teaching style/method, etc.

I actually have mixed feelings about this. Although I 100% believe a child who is failing core classes is showing that they have not mastered the material, most of the children who fall into this category are students who have a lot of behavioral/discipline issues as well. SO.....holding them back only makes them more angry and causes them to act out more and cause more issues in the classroom. It is a "hot topic" in a lot of schools.

 

Dragonfly1226

I actually did extensive research on this topic in grad school. I used to think that students should be retained (held back a year) if they weren't meeting minimum standards. But it turns out that there is a huge correlation between being retained (even in kindergarten) and dropping out of high school, being put in jail, and later drug use and alcohol abuse. In addition, retained students may catch up during the next year when they see the same material for a second time (they don't always), but then they fall behind again the next year since nobody ever addresses the real reason why these children are falling behind. So holding a student back doesn't really do any good, but it can do a lot of harm. It is far better to promote these kids to the next grade and increase the support they receive in school. 

Temp893722312503334

In the district I taught and worked at (in OH) children were VERY VERY rarely held back (as in "fail" a grade).  We didn't have pass / fail grades.

When a child was not doing well the teacher, by law, had to bring that child through a process called Intervention Assistance.  Which was a team mde up of teachers, admins, school psychs etc.  A plan to help that child was put in place and carefully monitored by said team (parents were involved as well).  This process would often last more then one school year and it was a process designed to weed out factors such as a learning disability, home / life issues.  If after much intervention the child still didn't make adequate growth then the team often went to special ed. testing.  

The only way we held back a child was if the parent insisted or in a few cases where a child was involved in a serious home / life issue (international adoption, child had cancer during early years of school, foster children  - those were the few times we did it in our school). And even then, it was only allowed in the very early grades (k or 1)

Usually, there was an underlying special education type issue and then services would be put into place instead of holding back.  

 

dundasgirl

Yes, I was referring to the overall "graduating" to the next grade level at school...So if you don't pass (get above F) the core courses in grade 6, get F's across the board, and still make it to grade 7 no problem (pass).  I find that even if kids don't pass the courses in their grade, they are pushed into the next grade. 

My sister teaches high school and she was instructed to give special exams to 3 kids in her class who couldn't do the standard class work.  I read the exams and they were like a grade 2 level.  Yes, elementary. 

Then, a woman I worked with...her daughter, in grade 8, didn't hand in MOST of her assignments for a particular class...and was given until the end of the school year to hand them in.  How is this right?  Everyone else in the class had to hand in their assignments on time in order to "pass" the course...however, the school's hesitation to give anyone a "fail" makes them go to these lengths?

So....she goes on to Grade 9.

????

 

 

dundasgirl

chaucer:

In the district I taught and worked at (in OH) children were VERY VERY rarely held back (as in "fail" a grade).  We didn't have pass / fail grades.

When a child was not doing well the teacher, by law, had to bring that child through a process called Intervention Assistance.  Which was a team mde up of teachers, admins, school psychs etc.  A plan to help that child was put in place and carefully monitored by said team (parents were involved as well).  This process would often last more then one school year and it was a process designed to weed out factors such as a learning disability, home / life issues.  If after much intervention the child still didn't make adequate growth then the team often went to special ed. testing.  

The only way we held back a child was if the parent insisted or in a few cases where a child was involved in a serious home / life issue (international adoption, child had cancer during early years of school, foster children  - those were the few times we did it in our school). And even then, it was only allowed in the very early grades (k or 1)

Usually, there was an underlying special education type issue and then services would be put into place instead of holding back.  

 

That sounds incredible and amazing...and sadly is not the case in most schools around here!!!  If that was the situation for all kids...WOW!

Temp893722312503334

Very true Dundas.  I was lucky to work in an upper middle class, highly rated school district.  Its too bad b/c this is cheaper then the alternative of special education, homelessness, prison,drugs etc.  

I was also in a K-5 building, this intervention tended to not be as organized in the middle and high schools but I know that they were working on it when I moved and left my job.  

 

alchris

chaucer:

In the district I taught and worked at (in OH) children were VERY VERY rarely held back (as in "fail" a grade).  We didn't have pass / fail grades.

When a child was not doing well the teacher, by law, had to bring that child through a process called Intervention Assistance.  Which was a team mde up of teachers, admins, school psychs etc.  A plan to help that child was put in place and carefully monitored by said team (parents were involved as well).  This process would often last more then one school year and it was a process designed to weed out factors such as a learning disability, home / life issues.  If after much intervention the child still didn't make adequate growth then the team often went to special ed. testing.  

The only way we held back a child was if the parent insisted or in a few cases where a child was involved in a serious home / life issue (international adoption, child had cancer during early years of school, foster children  - those were the few times we did it in our school). And even then, it was only allowed in the very early grades (k or 1)

Usually, there was an underlying special education type issue and then services would be put into place instead of holding back.  

 

This, though we retained quite a few in K and 1st, usually with late birthdays whom I wished had just waited a year to start K for the reasons that Dragonfly mentioned.